Problem: Find the distance between the point ${(-2, -1)}$ and the line $\enspace {y = x + 7}\thinspace$. ${1}$ ${2}$ ${3}$ ${4}$ ${5}$ ${6}$ ${7}$ ${8}$ ${9}$ ${\llap{-}2}$ ${\llap{-}3}$ ${\llap{-}4}$ ${\llap{-}5}$ ${\llap{-}6}$ ${\llap{-}7}$ ${\llap{-}8}$ ${\llap{-}9}$ ${1}$ ${2}$ ${3}$ ${4}$ ${5}$ ${6}$ ${7}$ ${8}$ ${9}$ ${\llap{-}2}$ ${\llap{-}3}$ ${\llap{-}4}$ ${\llap{-}5}$ ${\llap{-}6}$ ${\llap{-}7}$ ${\llap{-}8}$ ${\llap{-}9}$
Solution: First, find the equation of the perpendicular line that passes through ${(-2, -1)}$ The slope of the blue line is ${1}$ , and its negative reciprocal is ${-1}$ Thus, the equation of our perpendicular line will be of the form $\enspace {y = -x + b}\thinspace$ We can plug our point, ${(-2, -1)}$ , into this equation to solve for ${b}$ , the y-intercept. $-1 = {-}(-2) + {b}$ $-1 = 2 + {b}$ $-1 - 2 = {b} = -3$ The equation of the perpendicular line is $\enspace {y = -x - 3}\thinspace$ We can see from the graph (or by setting the equations equal to one another) that the two lines intersect at the point ${(-5, 2)}$ . Thus, the distance we're looking for is the distance between the two red points. The distance formula tells us that the distance between two points is equal to: $\sqrt{( x_{1} - x_{2} )^2 + ( y_{1} - y_{2} )^2}$ Plugging in our points ${(-2, -1)}$ and ${(-5, 2)}$ gives us: $\sqrt{( {-2} - {-5} )^2 + ( {-1} - {2} )^2}$ $= \sqrt{( 3 )^2 + ( -3 )^2} = \sqrt{18} = 3\sqrt{2}$ The distance between the point ${(-2, -1)}$ and the line $\thinspace {y = x + 7}\enspace$ is $\thinspace3\sqrt{2}$.